writing around the block

Category Archives: Random Ramblings

Hey everyone,
I’m sorry I didn’t post yesterday on the anniversary; I must have lost my head! But today’s post will still honor the one year anniversary of my first publication, A Single Man’s Valentine, which you can win by simply leaving a comment and your email address!

So this past year has been a blast with a release and a ton of writing going on. I’m working on two different full length novels at the moment. One is over 40 thousand words! O_O The other isn’t quite as far along, less than 10 thousand, but it’s getting there.

The longer novel is m/m and about a guy that is raising his teenage sister on his own and going to college. In order for them to survive, he works six days a week as a high-end escort, catering to the wealthy men of his city. His first day of college, he meets a man that he’s instantly attracted to, but doesn’t think he has the time for with all of his responsibilities. That night, his client ends up being the guy from school. Can you imagine the drama that could cause?

As for the other novel, well, there’s not much to say at the moment without giving away everything I’ve written so far as it’s so short at the moment. All I can tell you right now is that it’s a romance (of course) with a little bit of supernatural twist, and it’s a m/f pairing.

I still can’t believe it’s been a year since my first eBook was released. I also can’t believe how well it did, especially in the first quarter. I was just hoping to get one book sold, and lets just say, I did way better than one sale. :)
I can only hope that when I finally publish my first full-length that it’ll be as successful as my first short story has been.

Because this is an anniversary post, I guess I should tell you a little bit about the book this anniversary is honoring. It’s called, A Single Man’s Valentine and you can get it at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, All Romance Ebooks, and Bookstrand. (click on the links and it’ll take you right to the book)

A Single Man’s Valentine Blurb:

Kris Goodwin wants to spend his first Valentine’s Day since his divorce alone in his apartment with a case of beer. But his best friend Jake has other ideas and shows up unannounced. Jake has brought supplies for what he calls the perfect single man’s Valentine’s Day; take-out, flowers, romantic comedies and a box of chocolates.

As the evening progresses, Jake admits the harmless crush he’s had on Kris isn’t quite as harmless as he’s made it out to be. He’s actually in love with Kris. Then Kris tells Jake the real reason behind his divorce.

* * * * *

Thank you all for celebrating this wonderful occasion with me. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d ever be celebrating the release anniversary of something I had written. I can truly say that writing is a dream I had and now I am living it. I want to thank everyone that has made this possible for me, especially everyone at Rebel Ink Press. They have been so good to me over the past year and I can’t wait to have them take on my next project.

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I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted, the holidays were crazy! But in just two short days it will be the ONE YEAR anniversary of my first ever eBook, A Single Man’s Valentine! I can’t believe a whole year has come and gone already. On Thursday, I’ll be having a little party, here, on my blog. I encourage you all to come along and enjoy as there may be a copy or two (or three) of A Single Man’s Valentine up for grabs! My post on Thursday will give you all the details about how to enter and how many actual .pdf copies I’ll be giving out.

I can’t wait to celebrate with you all! It’s been an amazing year and I’m excited to show you what’s coming up for the future. :)

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Seems I’ve been away for a while. But I’m back for the Men of May Blog Hop!

This blog hop is all about the men in our lives; whether they be men in our personal lives, famous men we adore, the characters in our books, etc. So who am I choosing to write about? To be honest, this was a hard choice for me as there aren’t a lot of men in my life. I was raised around mostly women but have had a few nice father figures in my life. I’m also very much single at the moment. So who should I write about?

To tell you the truth, as I’m sitting here writing this, I’m still not entirely sure.

But maybe the best man for me to write about is my newest character in my newest work-in-progress. His name is Taylor Compton; strong, dark and handsome, but entirely soft and cuddly. He sings like a bird, his range exquisite, glory notes and all; he’ll give you chills. He was in one of those reality show singing competitions and made some amazing friends; his best friend being Temperance Stuart.

Taylor is a man that can’t stand to see his friends—who always manage to become family—hurt in any way, shape or form. So when Temperance comes back for the tour and has changed so drastically from a traumatizing experience, there’s nothing he wants more than to help her get back to who she used to be. He hates seeing her terrified of the world when she used to be bubbly and out-going, always smiling and having a good time.

Taylor is the kind of man I think most straight women—and gay men—would love to have as their very own. I know I would. He’s warm, smart, funny, playful… he’s the best of everything. But when you take a closer look, he’s got insecurities just like everyone else. He hates his freckles, thinks his stomach could be flatter and even hates being six-foot-four at times. Although he has these insecurities, for the most part he loves the person he is and he wants everyone to feel the same about themselves. He’s kind-hearted and fiercely protective of those he cares about. Don’t you wish you could have him too?

Temperance, his best friend, is the one girl that can turn his world upside down. He loves her, wants her, believes she is his soul mate. But like I said, his feelings for her have turned his world on it’s head and he can’t tell up from down most of the time and it doesn’t bother him in the least. He wants what I suspect most people want – love, a family, someone to come home to after a long hard day at work. He wants someone to share his life with and have that life and that love be successful.

All in all, Taylor is all kinds of shades of light and dark, love and hate. Maybe he’s bit too perfect for reality. But he’s a perfect fit for the hero of my story. I hope you all have a man in your life that you can call your hero whether he’s a lover, friend, brother, father or even a stranger off the street that comes to your rescue.

Now, this wouldn’t be a proper bloghop without a giveaway! All you have to do is leave a comment and one random winner will be selected to receive my first published m/m short story, A Single Man’s Valentine. So comment away! Also, go check out the other authors’ posts for the bloghop at the link below.

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Wow, I can’t believe that Christmas is in less than two weeks! Thirteen days to be exact. So where have I been? Well, for the most part I’ve been writing. The month of November was spent writing for NaNoWriMo and now I’m working on something I hope to get published.

NaNoWriMo was… interesting this year. At first it was going well, but then somewhere along the lines the story went haywire and turned into utter crap. So much so that at 15,000 words I just wanted to quit. But then I thought, hey I can do this, and decided to challenge myself. I wanted to see if I could write the 50k words no matter how much I liked—or disliked—the story. So at 45k I thought I was going to die as I could not think of a single thing else to write. I was devastated to say the least. I told myself I was done and there was nothing I could do and I’d lost NaNoWriMo on my third try after I had won both of my first two years. I set the story aside and the following day—Thanksgiving—I knocked it out of the park and came in at something like 50,025 words and the story was finished. It was a sort of abrupt ending, but it worked. When all is said and done, I feel doubly accomplished with this year’s NaNo.

A few days ago I finally got the edits for my first publication! I was so excited and so nervous at the same time. I was scared of the red marks I would see. I honestly thought there were going to be a ton. But in the end, there wasn’t enough to make me cringe and think I completely suck. There was just enough to let me know that there’s still things I can improve upon and learn with writing. And really, who in the world writes so perfectly that there’s nothing for them to improve on? Exactly, no one. So I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished with that short story. I’m also proud that I was able to get the edits done and back to my editor the following day.

But now it’s December and we’re all getting ready for the holidays, whichever one you may celebrate. I happen to celebrate Christmas as I was raised and baptized as a Methodist and my grandmother is a retired Methodist minister. This is the time of year that stresses most people out. For me, it’s so stressful that I just want to hide until after New Year’s. I don’t though, no matter how much I want to. But this year is a little different, this year I have my writing to look forward to—and my new dog. He’s very good at distracting me. You’re probably wondering why writing is making this year different as I’m sure you’ve guessed that I’ve been writing for years now. (Most of my life, actually) This year is different because I have my publication to look forward to in the next couple of months. Also, writing has taken on a new meaning for me now that I’m involved in the eBook world of publication. It’s given me a new kind of confidence, a kind of reassurance that tells me I can do this. I can make my dreams come true. It’s something I hadn’t thought was possible before, but now it’s happening and I feel like everything is right with the world.

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So as most people know, Sunday was the day Mother Nature whipped our asses in the form of Hurricane Irene. But by the time it made it to my neck of the woods it was downgraded to a Tropical Storm. It was wicked, nonetheless and I had to go out in it. And I don’t mean, like, out in a car. No, I had to go out and walk my dog in that horrendous weather. Luckily he wasn’t too fond of the weather and made it quick whenever we went out.

Sitting at home all day with nowhere to go, you’d think I would have gotten a lot of writing done. But I didn’t really. I mostly edited old stuff because I couldn’t come up with any fresh ideas. Although I did a writing exercise and got a little bit of new writing spit out. But it wasn’t a lot. I’ll post what I have here, because I thought it was kind of cool. The writing exercise came from a book called, Naming the World. Basically the exercise was to come up with your title first, then write. Well, there were a few title examples in the book and I used one of those. This is what became of those few minutes of writing…